


Aftermath

by arysthaeniru



Series: the city is an abyss [7]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Crime Fighting, Gen, Slums
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 05:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2569268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arysthaeniru/pseuds/arysthaeniru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is not what happens in the heat of a battle, but afterwards that counts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftermath

With a grunt, Sanada sent the police officer flying, with one large punch of his fist, The police officer hit the floor with a thud, and started bleeding lightly from a headwound. Another police officer picked up his comrade and fled, through the crowd. Sanada looked around, and noticed that most of the policemen were running away from the slums and that, to his relief, most people were letting them run.

"Do not pursue!" he bellowed, loudly, as he cracked his knuckles, and probed the one finger which felt stiffer than usual. He watched them retreat, and once he was sure that every officer was gone, he started to take stock of his injuries. On Yukimura's command, he had not used a single lethal weapon. He'd merely defended, and it seemed that even the police officers hadn't been ready for a full-on fight, armed only with tazers and batons. Still, his fingers felt sore, his knee felt a little sore from where he'd been caught with a tazer and his face was bleeding from some scratches. Still, it was better than some of the street fights that he'd gotten into as a child. 

This city was an abyss but it was his abyss to protect. 

He probed the inside of his mouth cautiously, as he whirled around the area. The fighters seemed to be dispersing, slowly and he noticed Yanagi slumped back against a piping, his blindfold tied around his face, but looking pained. It was almost a perfect replica of how they had first met, so long ago. "Renji." he called, making his steps loud. Since Yanagi had gotten a dark house to reside in, Sanada had almost forgotten how to approach him, in a way that didn't make Yanagi feel like an invalid. Still, he remembered to step loudly and make it quite obvious that he was approaching and to talk to Yanagi's face only. 

Yanagi nodded as Sanada drew closer, raising his hand weakly in greeting. Sanada squeezed his shoulder and frowned a little. "Do you need a doctor?" he asked. 

Yanagi nodded grimly, as he gripped Sanada's arms. "I twisted my leg, trying to stop someone from being tazered. The infirmary is over by Tachibana, I believe." Instantly, Sanada helped Yanagi to his feet, and placed Yanagi's arm over his shoulder, grateful that Yanagi was a little taller than him. It made this part easy. "Does Seiichi know..?" Yanagi asked, as they started limping over to wear Sanada could see the shock of blond hair. 

Sanada nodded, interrupting him. "Yes, Seiichi knows. He told me not to give any of the recruits weapons when we came to offer backup."

Yanagi relaxed a little, as he pressed a hand to his blindfold, delicately. "The government mole did not know of this. Neither did our own moles in the police forces. This cannot have been premediated, Genichirou."

Sanada agreed, with a slight sound, as he helped. "They did not come armed. This was a mission to test the waters without central leadership, and our slums reacted unfavourably."

"It won't stop them. If anything, this will only increase their desire to quell the slums and try to erase the visible festering crime." Yanagi warned, grimly. 'We are just lucky that no policemen died. That would have stirred them to come here quickly."

"I don't think so." Tachibana said, as Sanada helped Yanagi down onto one of the small pallets that surrounded the quick area of treatment for the people caught in the riot. Yanagi was instantly tended to by a man with intense blue hair and Sanada turned to Tachibana, who looked a little worse for the wear, his eye blackened and his entire lower chin soaked in blood. "Tezuka will be more cautious than that."

"They have been gearing up to do something like this for some time, Tachibana." argued Sanada, grimly. "The people of the city have been afraid of the slums since they started sprawling outwards and becomign more and more shabby."

Tachibana just shrugged, looking quite tired. The other man was someone that Sanada valued greatly as a worker. He was tireless, took his own decisions that usually aligned with Rikkai's overall wishes and had a charisma that made it easier to access the hearts of slum-dwellers, rather than their wallets or their practicality. Despite him not originally having originated from the slums, he'd adopted their identity strongly and refused to let anyone compromise his integrity. It was a sort of honour that Sanada respected greatly- even if they rarely saw eye to eye on many issues. "Tezuka's not evil. He's not seriously convinced that the slums problem can be solved by slaughtering us."

"Tezuka was not in charge of this." Sanada clarified, as he pulled out his own white cloth, stained red, to mop up the blood dripped down from his cheek. The other police man was another filled with honour, and while Sanada would never respect him, he recognized him as a man who was honourable and did what he said he would. "But even so, look where they chose to venture into. There are other parts of the slum they could have chosen, but they chose this area. This is a housing area, where most of the children and women who are weaker live because they need to walk to factories early in the morning. They chose to attack here first." He glanced around the houses, grateful that in the middle of the day, most of them were working and had escaped this. Still, he saw some dirty faces peering through the windows and the gaps in the corrugated steel and could see some of them slipping out of their houses to help the clean-up. 

"It was strategic on their behalf. It would have gained a foothold in the weaker part of the slums had we not been here." mused Tachibana, as they noticed a few injured people still collapsed near houses and went to go help them up.

"And now it has backfired for them and worked well for us. They took a cowardly action and the people of the slums will not stand for it." said Sanada, simply.

"They will fight harder now that this has happened..." murmured Tachibana, finishing Sanada's thought, his blue eyes narrowed and worried. 

Sanada nodded, with a slightly vicious sense of happiness, as he hoisted someone up onto his shoulders and helped them limp over to the pallets. 

"That is what I am worried about." said Tachibana coolly and Sanada just gave Tachibana a look. Why was that a concern?

Tachibana placed down the men and pulled Sanada away from the corner, roughly. "Look at where we are. Most people struggle to live. They get up early, they work like dogs, and they come home exhausted, somehow manage to sleep and rinse and repeat. They are exhausted. They do not have it in them to wage war. They can barely defend themselves."

"We will prepare the slums for war. We will give them what they need to fight. And they will fight to protect what is theirs. If we let the city walk all over us and simply defend, we will look weak." Sanada retorted fiercely. They were hardly going to just let the people of their own city die. This was their land. 

"And if we attack back, we are just as bad as the fat-cats who make their people fight their battles for them!" yelled Tachibana into Sanada's face. Tachibana's loud voice drew some looks, but most people didn't want to get involved in their battle. Sanada refrained from hitting Tachibana, merely because Tachibana already looked injured enough and Sanada didn't want to injure already-wounded people. 

Instead, Sanada breathed deeply and frowned, as he crossed his arms across his chest, cloth still gripped tightly in his hand. It was stained so deeply red, moreso than even Niou's, but Sanada knew every name of every death. "We have never claimed to be righteous, not like those politicians. And even in this war, I will be on the front line, as will Renji, Niou and our other leaders like you. We are nothing like them, because I do not lie to myself and I do not think you do either, Tachibana."

Tachibana's face was reluctant. "I do not agree." he said, tightly. "I will not lead an attack on the city. But I will fight tooth and nail if they come into the slums with weapons." With that, he stalked off towards his section of gang members, all wearing black, tossing concerned looks to their conversation. Ishida's gaze lingered on Sanada and Kamio gave him a fierce glare. It was clear to whom they were loyal to.

Sanada's jaw tightened as he watched them depart the area together, as a family and frowned. He would need to talk to Yukimura about these events unfurling. He was uneasy about how things were unraveling and the locations of battle.

It was not supposed to have started this early.


End file.
